Zaharira Harifai was an Israeli stage and film actor, and the 2003 recipient of the Israel Prize in Theatre. During the 1948 War of Independence, Harifai served with the Golani combat unit as a radio operator. After completing her military service, she studied at the Cameri Theatre’s Drama Studio. Harifai appeared in dozens of theatre productions at Haifa and Beit Lessin theatres, but her stage was especially synonymous with the Cameri Theatre. At the end of the 1950s, she became one of the founding members of the Zavit (‘angle’) Theatre and at the same time, also joined the Green Onion (‘Batzal Yarok’) theatre and entertainment troupe.
Harifai was a favourite of renowned Israeli playwright, Hanoch Levin, who would cast her regularly in his plays. Highlights of her stage work with Levin includes Yaacobi and Leidental, Rubber Merchants, and Requiem. In 2012, she won the Israeli Theatre Prize for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the Cameri Theatre’s production of the late Anat Gov’s Happy Ending (directed by Edna Mazia). Highlights of her other stage credits include Italian Straw Hat, No Exit, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Mother Courage and her Children, and Abandoned Property.
Highlights of Harifai’s film credits include Sallah (Ephraim Kishon, 1964), Hole in the Moon (Uri Zohar, 1965), Judith (Daniel Mann, 1966), The Big Dig (Ephraim Kishon, 1969), The Policeman (Ephraim Kishon, 1971), Daughters, Daughters (Moshé Mizrahi, 1973), The Fox in the Chicken Coop (Ephraim Kishon, 1978), 5 and 5 (Shmuel Imberman, 1980), Repeat Dive (Shimon Dotan, 1982), and Jellyfish (Shira Geffen and Etgar Keret, 2007).
